may behold my glory, which thou hast given me ; John xvii. 24: and not only to be mere spectators, but even partners of all this celestial bliss, together with himself; The glory, which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; John xvii. 22. Oh, the transcendent and incomprehensible blessedness of believers, which, even when they enjoy, they cannot be able to utter; for measure infinite, for duration eternal! Oh, the inexplicable joy of the full and everlasting accomplishment of the happy union of Christ and the believing soul; more fit for thankful wonder and ravishment of spirit, than for any finite apprehension!

CHAP. VI.

THE MEANS, BY WHICH THIS UNION IS WROUGHT.

Now, that we may look a little further into the Means by which this union is wrought, know, my son, that, as there are two persons, betwixt whom this union is made, Christ and the believer; so each of them concurs to the happy effecting of it: Christ, by his Spirit diffused through the hearts of all the regenerate, giving life and activity to them; the believer, laying hold by faith upon Christ, so working in him: and these do so re-act upon each other, that, from their mutual operation, results this gracious union whereof we treat.

Here is a spiritual marriage betwixt Christ and the soul. The liking of one part doth not make up the match; but the consent of both. To this purpose, Christ gives his Spirit; the soul plights her faith: what interest have we in Christ, but by his Spirit? what interest hath Christ in us, but by our faith?

On the one part: He hath given us his Holy Spirit, saith the Apostle; 1 Thess. iv. 8: and, in a way of correlation, We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; 1 Cor. ii. 12. And this Spirit we have so received, as that he dwells in us; Rom. viii. 11 and so dwells in us, as that we are joined to the Lord; and he, that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit; 1 Cor. vi. 17.

On the other part: we have access by Faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So as now, The life, that we live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God; Gal. ii. 20: who dwells in our hearts by faith; Eph. iii. 17. Oh, the grace of faith! according to St. Peter's style (2 Pet. i. 1.), truly precious: justly recommended to us by St. Paul (Eph. vi. 16.), above all other graces incident into the soul; as that, which, if not alone, yet chiefly transacts

all the main affairs tending to salvation. For Faith is the quickening grace; Gal. ii. 20. Rom. i. 17: the directing grace; 2 Cor. v. 7: the protecting grace; Eph. vi. 16: the establishing grace; Rom. xi. 20. 2 Cor. i. 24: the justifying grace; Rom. v. 1: the sanctifying and purifying grace; Acts xv. 9. Faith is the grace, that assents to, apprehends, applies, appropriates Christ; Heb. xi. 1: and, hereupon, the uniting grace; and, which comprehends all, the saving grace.

If ever, therefore, we look for any consolation in Christ, or to have any part in this beatifical union, it must be the main care of our hearts to make sure of a lively Faith in the Lord Jesus; to lay fast hold upon him; to clasp him close to us; yea, to receive him inwardly into our bosoms: and, so to make him ours and ourselves his, that we may be joined to him, as our Head; espoused to him, as our Husband; incorporated into him, as our Nourishment; engrafted in him, as our Stock; and laid upon him, as a sure Foundation.

CHAP. VII.

THE UNION OF CHRIST'S MEMBERS WITH THEMSELVES.

HITHERTO, we have treated of this blessed union, as in relation to Christ, the Head. It remains that we now consider of it, as it stands in relation to the members of his mystical body, one towards another.

For, as the body is united to the head; so must the members be united to themselves, to make the body truly complete. Thus the Holy Ghost, by his Apostle: As the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so is Christ; 1 Cor. xii, 12.

From this entire conjunction of the members with each other, arises that happy communion of Saints, which we profess both to believe and to partake of.

This mystical body of Christ is a large one; extending itself both to heaven and earth. There is a real union betwixt all those far-spread limbs; between the Saints in heaven, between the Saints on earth, between the Saints in heaven and earth.

SECT. 1.

The union of Christ's Members in Heaven.

We have reason to begin at HEAVEN. Thence is the original of our union and blessedness.

There was never place for discord in that region of glory, since the rebellious angels were cast out thence. The spirits of just men made perfect, (Heb. xii. 23.) must needs agree in a perfect unity.

Neither can it be otherwise: for there is but one will in heaven; one scope of the desires of blessed souls, which is the glory of their God: all the whole choir sing one song; and in that one harmonious tune of Hallelujah. We, poor parcelsainted souls here on earth, profess to bend our eyes directly upon the same holy end, the honour of our Maker and Redeemer; but, alas, at our best we are drawn to look asquint at our own aims of profit or pleasure: we profess to sing loud praises unto God; but it is with many harsh and jarring notes. Above, there is a perfect accordance, in an unanimous glorifying of him, that sits upon the throne for ever. Oh, how ye love the Lord, all ye his saints; Ps. xxxi. 23. Oh, how joyful ye are in glory; Ps. cxlix. 5. The heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord; thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the Saints; Ps. lxxxix. 5.

Oh, what a blessed commonwealth is that above! The city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; (ever at unity with itself; Ps. cxxii. 3.) and, therein, an innumerable company of angels, and the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven; the spirits of just men made perfect, and, whom they all adore, God the Judge of all, and Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament; Heb. xii. 22, 23, 24. All these as one, as holy. Those twenty thousand chariots of heaven (Ps. lxviii. 17.) move all one way. When those four beasts full of eyes, round about the throne, give glory, and honour, and thanks to him that sits upon the throne, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come; then the four and twenty elders fall down before him, and cast their crowns before the throne; Rev. iv. 6-10. No one wears his crown, while the rest cast down theirs all accord in one act of giving glory to the Highest. After the sealing of the tribes, A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb; clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces; and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto God, for ever and ever; Rev. vii. 9-12.

Lo, those spirits, which here below were habited with several bodies, different in shapes, statures, ages, complexions,

are now above as one spirit, rather distinguished than divided; all united in one perpetual adoration and fruition of the God of Spirits; and mutually happy in God, in themselves, in each other.

SECT. 2.

The union of Christ's Members upon Earth :-(1.) In matter of judgment:-(2.) In matter of affection :-(3.) A complaint of Divisions; and, notwithstanding them, an assertion of unity :-(4.) The necessary effects and fruits of this union of Christian hearts.

OUR Copy is set us, above: we labour to take it out, here on EARTH. What do we, but daily pray, that the blessed union of souls, which is eminent in that empyreal heaven, may be exemplified by us in this region of mortality? For, having through Christ an access by one Spirit unto God the Father, being no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; Eph. ii. 18, 19: we cease not to pray, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven; Matt. vi. 10. Yea, O Saviour, thou, who canst not but be heard, hast prayed to thy Father for the accomplishment of this union; That they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfect in one; John xvii. 22, 23.

What, then, is this union of the members of Christ here on earth, but a spiritual Oneness, arising from a happy conspiration of their thoughts and affections? For, whereas there are two main principles of all human actions and dispositions, the brain and the heart, the conjuncture of these two cannot but produce a perfect union: from the one, our thoughts take their rise; our affections, from the other; in both, the soul puts itself forth upon all matter of accord or difference.

(1.) The union of Thoughts, is, when we mind the same things, when we agree in the same truths. This is the charge, which the Apostle of the Gentiles lays upon his Corinthians; and, in their persons, upon all Christians: Now I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together, in the same mind and in the same judgment; I Cor. i. 10.

And this is no other, than that one faith, (Eph. iv. 5.) which makes up the one Church of Christ upon earth. One, both in respect of Times and Places.

Of Times: so as the Fathers of the first world, the Patriarchs of the next, and all God's people in their ages, that looked, together with them, for the redemption of Israel, (Luke ii. 38.)

are united with us Christians of the last days, in the same belief; and make up one entire body of Christ's Catholic Church.

Of Places so as all those, that truly profess the name of Christ, though scattered into the farthest remote regions of the earth, even those, that walk with their feet opposite to ours, yet meet with us in the same centre of Christian faith, and make up one household of God.

Not that we can hope it possible, that all Christians should agree in all truths. While we are here, our minds cannot but be more unlike to each other, than our faces: yea, it is a rare thing, for a man to hold constant to his own apprehensions.

Lord God! what a world do we meet with of those, who miscal themselves several Religions; indeed, several professions of one and the same Christianity! Melchites, Georgians, Maronites, Jacobites, Armenians, Abyssines, Cophti, Nestorians, Russians, Mengrellians; and the rest, that fill up the large Map of Christianography: all which, as while they hold the head Christ, they cannot be denied the privilege of his members; so, being such, they are or should be indissolubly joined together in the unity of spirit, and maintenance of the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints; Jude 3. It is not the variety of by-opinions, that can exclude them from having their part in that one Catholic Church, and their just claim to the Communion of Saints. While they hold the solid and precious foundation, it is not the hay or stubble (1 Cor. iii. 12.), which they lay upon it, that can set them off from God or his Church. But, in the mean time, it must be granted, that they have much to answer for to the God of Peace and Unity, who are so much addicted to their own conceits, and so indulgent to their own interest, as to raise and maintain new doctrines and to set up new sects in the Church of Christ, varying from the common and received truths; labouring to draw disciples after them, to the great distraction of souls, and scandal of Christianity. With which sort of disturbers I must needs say this age, into which we are fallen, hath been and is, above all that have gone before us, most miserably pestered: what good soul can be other than confounded, to hear of and see more than a hundred and fourscore new, and some of them dangerous and blasphemous, opinions, broached and defended in one, once famous and unanimous, Church of Christ? Who can say other, upon the view of these wild thoughts, than Gerson said long since, that the world, now grown old, is full of doting fancies; if not rather, that the world, now near his end, raves and talks nothing but fancies and frenzies? How arbitrary soever these self-willed fanatics may think it, to take to themselves this liberty of thinking what they list, and venting what they think, the blessed Apostle hath long since branded them